I’ve been taking everyday videos of the girls here and there this past week, so here’s another slew of videos of M&M!
Mio
All posts about our firstborn, Mio Elise Allen.
Moving to the Big Girl Bed
Mio had been sleeping in her “big girl bed” for naps for the past few months, but she always wants to sleep in her crib at night. (These days, she doesn’t even nap most days unless we’re in the car, so her toddler bed had been untouched for weeks.) Dan and I haven’t really been pushing her to move to the big girl bed, but since we do want to eventually move Mirei from her bassinet to the crib at around 3 months old, we have been encouraging Mio to say goodbye to the crib on her own instead of us having to evict her later on.
I recently fell in love with this balloon-themed bedding set from The Land of Nod’s spring collection, and ordered it for Mio as part early birthday present, part incentive to sleep in her toddler bed. It was during their bedding sale and I got to use a Crate&Barrel gift card I’d been sitting on for years, but it was still a bit of a splurge… so I really hoped it would work. My prayers were answered, and she LOVED it!
Mio has been sleeping in her big girl bed since last week and she’s actually eager to crawl into it every night! She excitedly says “Balloon bed! Big girl bed!” It’s another bittersweet part of our little girl growing up, but I’m so glad that we could make the transition smooth and fun for her. 🙂
Hinamatsuri & Shichi-Go-San Photos
Earlier this month, we got some hinamatsuri/early shichi-go-san photos taken by Atelier Kanawa at The Japan-America Society of Washington DC.
From Wikipedia: Shichi-Go-San is a Japanese celebration of the passage of children into the older years of childhood. The ages 3, 5 and 7 are considered lucky numbers in East Asian numerology, as they are odd numbers. In the tradition, boys who are aged three or five and girls who are aged three or seven are dressed in kimono — many for the first time — for visits to shrines. Three-year-old girls usually wear hifu (a type of padded vest) with their kimono. A more modern practice is photography, and this day is well known as a day to take pictures of children.
Shichi-Go-San is held in mid-November (usually on the 15th and observed on the nearest weekend), but I figured that I’d kill two birds with one stone by getting some early (or late, if you go by the traditional kazoedoshi or age reckoning) Shichi-Go-San pictures taken during this Hinamatsuri (Girls’ Day) photo session opportunity, since the kimono garb is exactly the same for both occasions.
As you can see from a lot of these photos, the photographer had a hard time getting Mio to smile. She asked for Dan and I to help get a smile out of her, so we asked her what flavor of ice cream she wanted, and that did the trick:
Some behind-the-scenes snapshots I took with my phone:
The original photos we received from the photoshoot came back very yellow due to the lighting, so Dan had to do some color correcting to return them to a more accurate color (which is what you see above), but we’re pretty pleased with the end result. I myself never had the opportunity to wear a kimono as a child, let alone have photos taken in one, so I’m really happy that we could do this for Mio. I can’t wait to send these over to Mio’s great-grandparents and other relatives in Japan! 🙂
Chatting Away
It seems that Mio’s vocabulary has grown by leaps and bounds the past couple months, and it’s really fun to hear what she’s saying while she’s playing by herself or with us, or even with Mirei. Here are some videos we took of her recently.
“Quack! Quack!”
The other day, I found her chatting with Mirei while I left them alone for a moment. When I started recording, though, Mio clammed up.
Being playful with blankets:
Mio’s Musical Medley
Today, I found Mio playing with her toy banjo and singing — she sang “Baa Baa Black Sheep,” the alphabet song, and then “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” on her own, without me saying anything. I thought it was really interesting that she happened to pick those three particular songs and sang them consecutively, one after another. Could it be that she’s figured out that they all share the same melody?